World leaders are exploiting the US-led war on terror to justify a crack down on political opponents and abuse human rights, a major human rights group has warned.

In its annual survey of human rights activity in 66 countries in 2001, the US-based Human Rights Watch singles out Russia, Uzbekistan and Egypt as the main offenders of waging indefensible wars against political opponents in the name of the war on terror.

But Israel, China, Malaysia, Saudi Arabia, and Zimbabwe are also accused of deploying similar tactics.

The report says Western nations and the major powers that form the US-led coalition were missing an opportunity to focus attention on human rights and democracy in the Middle East, Central Asia and Africa.

It is essential to affirm a culture of human rights as an antidote to terrorism

Human Rights Watch

"These governments often embraced human rights only in theory while subverting them in practice," it said.

The report says Russia's "cynical strategy" of defending escalating military action in Chechnya as part of its own war against terrorism appeared to have worked.

Russia has defended its military escalation in Chechnya

Western countries, it says, downplayed previous criticism of Moscow's human rights abuses as they set about building a coalition against international terror.

"In the days following September 11, German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder and Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi said that Russia's actions in Chechnya must be reassessed. The US Government, which in April had supported the UN resolution condemning atrocities in Chechnya, began to play down its human rights concerns and play up alleged links between Chechen rebels and the al-Qaeda network," the report said.

Uzbekistan is singled out as particularly repressive and an illustration of how the West can overlook torture and other abuses because of the country's strategic importance.

Uzbekistan is singled out as one of the worst abusers of human rights

Uzbekistan was an important ally because it borders Afghanistan and has its own al-Qaeda-linked rebel movement.

"There are no political parties, no independent media, no civil society of any sort. Efforts by Muslims to pray outside the state-controlled mosque are met harshly, with torture and long prison sentences frequent," the report says.

But while the Bush administration maintained that the war on terror was not a war against Islam, it appeared to make little effort to stop the government from repressing Muslims wanting to worship outside state control, the report says.

The report says the Egyptian Government had brushed off criticism of torture and summary military trials, suggesting that Western countries should "think of Egypt's own fight against terror as their new model".

It also accuses the government of silencing peaceful political opposition to such an extent that it appears that the only alternative to supporting their authoritarian rule is risking their overthrow by radical opponents.

"The West has quietly accepted this pattern of repression because, in the short term, it seems to promise stability, and because the democratic alternative is feared."

In particular, it says, Egypt has "secured from the US Government massive aid and tacit acceptance of its human rights violations".

The reports says Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon has repeatedly referred to Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat as "our Bin Laden" and made other statements comparing the nation's struggle with the Palestinians to the US-led war on terror.